[Jesus and the disciples] came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
(Mark 8:22-25)
Why did He do that? This is an interesting story in that Jesus did not heal the man all at once. He did it in two stages. Was Jesus not powerful enough to heal the man the first time?
This story has two levels of meaning: one involves the man’s physical blindness, and one involves a deeper message about spiritual blindness. Jesus wanted to teach us about the deeper healing of spiritual blindness.
Many events in our lives have both a physical (visible) level and a spiritual (invisible) level. Our physical eyes allow us to see what is visible. Our spiritual eyes allow us to see the invisible things—things like love, grace, truth, mercy, holiness. If we are spiritually blind, we see only half of reality, like trying to see through a window that has a film of dirt on it. We don’t see the full picture, the full truth.
Spiritual blindness prevents us from seeing God’s love for us, His acceptance of us, or His forgiveness. If we are blind to those realities, we end up feeling hopeless and worthless. If we are blind to God’s protection over us, we live in fear. If we are blind to His understanding, we live without his direction and leadership. Like the man in the story, we need to come to Jesus and allow Him to open our eyes so that we may have full vision, to see everything clearly both physically and spiritually.
In His Service,
Eric Barnes
